A woman who suffered 20 miscarriages has had a ‘miracle baby’ after undergoing groundbreaking anti-malaria treatment, developed by pioneering doctors at Epsom Hospital.

Kelly Moseley, 37, had been trying for another baby since 2002, when she married husband Alan, and despite suffering 18 miscarriages at eight weeks and losing two baby boys at five months, she refused to give up, even though family and friends begged her to stop.

But when she saw Mr Hassan Shehata, a consultant obstetrician and gynaecologist at Epsom Hospital talking on TV programme This Morning about how he helped a woman give birth to a healthy baby girl after suffering 18 miscarriages, Mrs Moseley was sure he could help her.  

She said: "I saw Mr Shehata, who specialises in recurrent miscarriages, talking on This Morning explaining how he had helped women to stop miscarrying and I prayed he would be able to help me."

Mrs Moseley, from Birmingham, was eventually referred to Mr Shehata's clinic in 2007 and started treatment.

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Kelly Moseley with son Tyler

She said: "Mr Shehata made me feel at ease, I could tell he loved his work and had great pleasure in helping women like me and so my journey began."

Mr Shehata has spent the past decade researching and helping women who suffer recurrent miscarriages at Epsom and St Helier NHS Trust, working with immunologist Dr Amolak Bansal to find out why some women’s bodies reject pregnancies.

Their work has focused on natural killer cells which are found in everyone’s white bloods cells.

Mr Shehata said: "We found that some women’s natural killer cells are so aggressive they attack the pregnancy, thinking the foetus is a foreign body. 

"And that’s what was happening to Kelly.  Natural killer cells can be lowered by giving some women steroids - but for Kelly this didn’t work so we tried an anti-malaria treatment which also lowers the immune system. 

"Kelly is the first patient who received this treatment and it has worked well for around 10 to 15 other women since then.  It is an amazing medical breakthrough and I am delighted it worked for Kelly."

After one year taking the immune modulator drug hydroxycholoroquine - which treats malaria but is usually taken as an immune treatment for conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis - Mrs Moseley discovered she was pregnant in September 2012. 

Too scared to tell anyone other than husband, she kept the pregnancy under wraps until January last year.

Tyler was due to be born in June 2013 but due to Mrs Moseley’s high blood pressure, he was delivered 11 weeks early weighing just under 3lbs.

Now nine months old, the proud parents introduced him to Mr Shehata for the first time, who was delighted to see the couple under happier circumstances.

He said: "It is hard not to go on the emotional rollercoaster with patients, but Kelly was a model patient, and put her complete trust in me, and what a gift Tyler is. I am so happy for them."

Tyler will celebrate his first birthday with his sisters Jaye, 19, and Olivia 15, at a party in April.

Mrs Moseley added: "I still can’t believe Tyler is here. I just refused to give up hope and I hope our story encourages other women out there too.

"I will never forget the babies I’ve lost and the hurt never goes away, but having Tyler makes it all worthwhile and our lives are now complete.

"Thank you so much Mr Shehata - he really is the most amazing man and  wonderful doctor."